Anxiety = High BP = Fail = More anxiety – anyway out of the loop?
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QQ- thanks for the explanation. I would suggest that if the situation of a surgery causes distress, then hack it to death until you are so bored with it it causes no further stress. Explain to the receptionists and then go sit in the Doc's waiting room looking at the buzzer and the numbers. Do it on days off, do it for hours until you stop reacting. When you feel more at ease, make appintments with the Doc for anything, get there 2 hours early, and wait....... Keep walking into his surgery until he threatens you with the sack if you come once more with Athlete's foot/headache/backache/rash/constipation/urine a funny colour. Then tell him why!
This is a monster you have to exterminate. Get your sister to come around before/after her shift (and do your BP). Get a professional lady to come around in a nurses uniform and chuck you around a bit. Get your wife/girlfriend to dress up and walk in on you. You have this funny association with white coats/surgeries. Aviation requires you to prove your BP is OK. Only you can reprogram your mind that white coats/surgeries do not equal terror, but complete boredom!
This is a monster you have to exterminate. Get your sister to come around before/after her shift (and do your BP). Get a professional lady to come around in a nurses uniform and chuck you around a bit. Get your wife/girlfriend to dress up and walk in on you. You have this funny association with white coats/surgeries. Aviation requires you to prove your BP is OK. Only you can reprogram your mind that white coats/surgeries do not equal terror, but complete boredom!
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Hi NotSo Fantastic,
I enjoyed your reply very much and believe your method to be sound. In a way I am already doing something similar except with regard to the recording process. I’ve had used the BP machine so many time since borrowing it that the whole affair is far less of a ‘big deal’ than even on Wednesday when started the week long monitoring. I’m almost confident that on Thursday when I return the machine I will be able to demonstrate a normal BP to the nurse – fingers crossed.
On the subject of proving my BP to the aviation industry; I believe that it is perfectly acceptable for an AME to grant a medical certificate based on a GP’s report. Providing I can prove to my GP that my BP is ok then it’s a done deal. The CAA require the GP’s report to be based around either a 24-hour BP test or three distinct visits to the surgery with normal readings recorded.
Which beings us full circle I guess. I hope that with familiarity my BP will reduce at the surgery. My BP was high at Gatwick and on my visit to see the GP but both of these were plunges into the unknown (I have just signed up to this GP), even my second visit to the local surgery had an aspect of unfamiliarity with it as it with the nurse and not the doc.
I don’t enjoy all this messing about and I wish that I had ‘produced’ a nice healthy BP at Gatwick but that’s life! Lets hope it can all be resolved fairly soon.
Thanks – QQ
I enjoyed your reply very much and believe your method to be sound. In a way I am already doing something similar except with regard to the recording process. I’ve had used the BP machine so many time since borrowing it that the whole affair is far less of a ‘big deal’ than even on Wednesday when started the week long monitoring. I’m almost confident that on Thursday when I return the machine I will be able to demonstrate a normal BP to the nurse – fingers crossed.
On the subject of proving my BP to the aviation industry; I believe that it is perfectly acceptable for an AME to grant a medical certificate based on a GP’s report. Providing I can prove to my GP that my BP is ok then it’s a done deal. The CAA require the GP’s report to be based around either a 24-hour BP test or three distinct visits to the surgery with normal readings recorded.
Which beings us full circle I guess. I hope that with familiarity my BP will reduce at the surgery. My BP was high at Gatwick and on my visit to see the GP but both of these were plunges into the unknown (I have just signed up to this GP), even my second visit to the local surgery had an aspect of unfamiliarity with it as it with the nurse and not the doc.
I don’t enjoy all this messing about and I wish that I had ‘produced’ a nice healthy BP at Gatwick but that’s life! Lets hope it can all be resolved fairly soon.
Thanks – QQ
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Well good luck! It's up to you to put the effort into making Doctor Surgeries so utterly boring and tedious that your BP goes the other way. As long as you convince your own mind that there is no pain involved and the sooner you get it out of the way the sooner you will be down the pub, you will then join the rest of the human race in finding Doctor Receptionists not figures of fear, but boring twats!
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blood pressure
The 24 hour blood pressure check is much more useful than the home monitors which are often inaccurate and lead to a great deal of anxiety.
It is important to establish whetjher you have hypertension as then you can take steps to lower the pressure-firstly without using drugs and if this fails you can take medication which in almost all cases will lower it.One rarely finds a treatable cause for this problem.
If you ignore raised blood pressure it will catch up with you in the coming years.
It is important to establish whetjher you have hypertension as then you can take steps to lower the pressure-firstly without using drugs and if this fails you can take medication which in almost all cases will lower it.One rarely finds a treatable cause for this problem.
If you ignore raised blood pressure it will catch up with you in the coming years.
.......and above all qq, remember, you are not ill, were just trying to prevent you getting ill.
Ambulatory (24hr) bp is quite useful, although clinicians are sometimes alittle unsure as to what to do with the results.
The process involves wearing a little machine, on your belt, and a bp cuff for 24 hrs. It records your bp against time every 15 mins, the results can then be downloaded to a graph/spreadsheet.
From the studies I've seen, white coat syndrome can be defined when the readings "spike" at certain instances, usually walking into the quacks office, and interestingly, coitus.
There's some really useful advice re. lifestyle on this thread. It does seem a bit of a faff having to attend a cardio clinic for monitoring (havn't they got better things to do ?) Perhaps you coukld persuade your local friendly practice nurse/gp to contact the drugs company reps, as I know that some of the manufactures will provide the equipmwent.
For god's sake, don't tell them I told you so !
Ambulatory (24hr) bp is quite useful, although clinicians are sometimes alittle unsure as to what to do with the results.
The process involves wearing a little machine, on your belt, and a bp cuff for 24 hrs. It records your bp against time every 15 mins, the results can then be downloaded to a graph/spreadsheet.
From the studies I've seen, white coat syndrome can be defined when the readings "spike" at certain instances, usually walking into the quacks office, and interestingly, coitus.
There's some really useful advice re. lifestyle on this thread. It does seem a bit of a faff having to attend a cardio clinic for monitoring (havn't they got better things to do ?) Perhaps you coukld persuade your local friendly practice nurse/gp to contact the drugs company reps, as I know that some of the manufactures will provide the equipmwent.
For god's sake, don't tell them I told you so !
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QQ
Sorry to hear you have High Bp.
I am hypertensive and on a small dose water tablet for it, I only just found out before my inital class one last year, 180/110 (but i had been proded etc just before), so the CAA asked for the monitoring or three readings on succesive days, I opted for the latter and i obtained my class one. I am on medication but thats life.
Are you sure your BP just anxiety? (Sorry to say that, I hope it does not make it worse)
I hope so but even if you have to take medication for it, it's not the end the CAA are there to help.
Sorry to hear you have High Bp.
I am hypertensive and on a small dose water tablet for it, I only just found out before my inital class one last year, 180/110 (but i had been proded etc just before), so the CAA asked for the monitoring or three readings on succesive days, I opted for the latter and i obtained my class one. I am on medication but thats life.
Are you sure your BP just anxiety? (Sorry to say that, I hope it does not make it worse)
I hope so but even if you have to take medication for it, it's not the end the CAA are there to help.
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Hello Ginger and Frank,
I’m amazed at how many good responses have been posted regarding my question – thanks everyone!
Ginger and Frank you both raise some valid points which I must consider in depth. If I am I indeed hypertensive for real and being ‘fooled’ by what look like normal readings from the electric monitor – how will I know as the GP is only going on these results to make her decision? All I can do is take the advice of the GP (which won’t help with the CAA as the electric monitor records won’t wash with them). So it’s down to either performing for the nurse three times or paying for a 24-hour test (I’m not even sure the nurse will agree to three ‘unnecessary’ visits). Anyway it’s unlikely that I will calm down enough to be able to ‘prove’ my BP without a 24-hour test.
So what do I do. Well I maybe able to play a joker at this point and return home for a few days. How will this help I hear you mutter. I’ll explain, after four+ years of moving around with uni etc I’ve ended up living in the south (Wilts to be exact). Before this I lived at ‘home’, up north. My plan is to go back up north for a few days where I know the doctors, nurses and surgery very well and get my three BP readings taken up there (my mother’s the practice manger you see so its easy to arrange such things, she might even be able to arrange a short notice 24-hour test if need be!).
So there you have it, I’m either hypertensive but just for the doc’s or hypertensive all the time but not for the little electric machine! Either way I’ll have a hard time convincing myself, the doctor and the CAA. I just hope the truth will out sooner rather that later.
Thanks again – QQ
P.S – my results from the electric BP monitor so far:
Day Time BP Rate Activity
Thursday 07:30 109/72 70 Before b’fast
20:05 130/78 74 Watching TV
Friday 12:25 134/79 78 After Lunch
20:47 119/81 109 After exercise
Saturday 09:03 118/74 77 Before b’fast
16:05 122/67 74 Resting on sofa
Sunday 10:40 125/81 90 During house work
23:33 111/71 87 After bath
Monday 11:49 132/84 81 Before lunch
21:15 110/75 100 After exercise
Tuesday 08:00 130/75 80 After b’fast
21:46 122/70 94 5mins after exercise
I’m amazed at how many good responses have been posted regarding my question – thanks everyone!
Ginger and Frank you both raise some valid points which I must consider in depth. If I am I indeed hypertensive for real and being ‘fooled’ by what look like normal readings from the electric monitor – how will I know as the GP is only going on these results to make her decision? All I can do is take the advice of the GP (which won’t help with the CAA as the electric monitor records won’t wash with them). So it’s down to either performing for the nurse three times or paying for a 24-hour test (I’m not even sure the nurse will agree to three ‘unnecessary’ visits). Anyway it’s unlikely that I will calm down enough to be able to ‘prove’ my BP without a 24-hour test.
So what do I do. Well I maybe able to play a joker at this point and return home for a few days. How will this help I hear you mutter. I’ll explain, after four+ years of moving around with uni etc I’ve ended up living in the south (Wilts to be exact). Before this I lived at ‘home’, up north. My plan is to go back up north for a few days where I know the doctors, nurses and surgery very well and get my three BP readings taken up there (my mother’s the practice manger you see so its easy to arrange such things, she might even be able to arrange a short notice 24-hour test if need be!).
So there you have it, I’m either hypertensive but just for the doc’s or hypertensive all the time but not for the little electric machine! Either way I’ll have a hard time convincing myself, the doctor and the CAA. I just hope the truth will out sooner rather that later.
Thanks again – QQ
P.S – my results from the electric BP monitor so far:
Day Time BP Rate Activity
Thursday 07:30 109/72 70 Before b’fast
20:05 130/78 74 Watching TV
Friday 12:25 134/79 78 After Lunch
20:47 119/81 109 After exercise
Saturday 09:03 118/74 77 Before b’fast
16:05 122/67 74 Resting on sofa
Sunday 10:40 125/81 90 During house work
23:33 111/71 87 After bath
Monday 11:49 132/84 81 Before lunch
21:15 110/75 100 After exercise
Tuesday 08:00 130/75 80 After b’fast
21:46 122/70 94 5mins after exercise
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Your mother's the practice manager! Why didn't you say? You'd better get organising some 'conditioning' for yourself- sitting in that waiting room until you get bored out of your mind- don't read, just watch the buzzer until you don't react when it goes off! Do it day after day. Get her to organise quick BP readings out of the medics. Nobody is going to wave a magic wand so you stop reacting like you do. You're going to have to put hours of 'your' own time in to sort out 'your' problem.
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Hello again everyone,
I returned the BP machine to the nurse yesterday. She was pleased with my results and stated that no further action was required. She also took my BP whilst I was there, with an electric monitor, which turned out to be 159/89. High again! I was disappointed that I couldn't hold it together after demonstrating all week to myself that my BP is ok (average = 123/75 82BPM).
My next move is to return home and get my BP measured in familiar surroundings. If I can manage three 'normal' readings on three different days I'll be fine for the CAA.
Regards, QQ
I returned the BP machine to the nurse yesterday. She was pleased with my results and stated that no further action was required. She also took my BP whilst I was there, with an electric monitor, which turned out to be 159/89. High again! I was disappointed that I couldn't hold it together after demonstrating all week to myself that my BP is ok (average = 123/75 82BPM).
My next move is to return home and get my BP measured in familiar surroundings. If I can manage three 'normal' readings on three different days I'll be fine for the CAA.
Regards, QQ
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One of my guys had the same problem, and he started drinking blackhip tea or some such nonsense. No more coffee or proper tea - just this herbal stuff. Maybe it was called blackthorn tea - can't remember and he is up the line for a few days. A health food store would know the stuff. Load of mumbo-jumbo if you ask me. Funny thing is that it reduced his BP by 20.
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My dad is a doctor he took my blood pressure recently. We were surpised to see that it was high 140/80 ish...
he tried a larger armband as my arms are quite chunky from the gym and pizzas and the next reading was 120/70.
you do sound very nervous heartbeat 120 at rest in the surgery!!! thats like me jogging!!
He says that the size and fitment of the arm Cuff is critical for an accurate reading.
hope that helps
he tried a larger armband as my arms are quite chunky from the gym and pizzas and the next reading was 120/70.
you do sound very nervous heartbeat 120 at rest in the surgery!!! thats like me jogging!!
He says that the size and fitment of the arm Cuff is critical for an accurate reading.
hope that helps
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Ref the 3 readings, or 24 hour BP monitor: at the last Class 2, the BP was a bit high. The reasons for this turned out to be an issue other than white coat hypertension - now sorted -, however the AME discussed with me future Class 1 issue and what it might mean.
He said that he could get me on a 24 hour monitor prior to the Class 1 initial, which I could then arrive with at Gatwick if the BP reading did turn out to be high - 6 months to get an NHS one sounds excessive, perhaps due to the area you are in, but I would suggest, if you are going to go for the 24 hour one, to go via the AME rather than local GP (or ideally get a GP who is an AME!).
The monitors, it is fair to say, are not most accurate, however some such as the Braun are nowadays more accurate that NotSo suggests - perhaps times have changed, but of course for the ideal reading the surgery equipment is best. Perhaps take the electronic one along for a reading at the same time as the GP takes one to judge how good it is?!
He said that he could get me on a 24 hour monitor prior to the Class 1 initial, which I could then arrive with at Gatwick if the BP reading did turn out to be high - 6 months to get an NHS one sounds excessive, perhaps due to the area you are in, but I would suggest, if you are going to go for the 24 hour one, to go via the AME rather than local GP (or ideally get a GP who is an AME!).
The monitors, it is fair to say, are not most accurate, however some such as the Braun are nowadays more accurate that NotSo suggests - perhaps times have changed, but of course for the ideal reading the surgery equipment is best. Perhaps take the electronic one along for a reading at the same time as the GP takes one to judge how good it is?!
